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Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Activism | Access | Fake news | Immigration Ban

February 13, 2017

A “Libraries Are For Everyone” poster in Arabic. Credit: Rebecca McCorkindale

“Libraries Are For Everyone.” That’s
the message of a series of images created by Rebecca McCorkindale in the
days after President Donald Trump announced the temporary travel ban on
seven Muslim-majority countries. She never expected her signs of
inclusion to go further than a handful of libraries.

But by the time she’d woken up the
following day, she had received messages from librarians across the
world wanting their languages represented. And libraries across the
country — in Illinois, Minnesota, California, Virginia — had begun
putting up the images as posters, along with displays about books on
Islam, empathy and being a good neighbor.

McCorkindale, who is assistant
library director and creative director at the Gretna, Nebraska, public
library, said she created the images because she believes librarians can and should be activists. “Libraries are the heart of a
community, for anyone and everyone that lives there, regardless of their
background,” she said. “And so we strongly believe that libraries are
not neutral. We stand up for human rights.”

She is not the only one. Since Mr.
Trump took office a little more than three weeks ago, a vocal and
growing number of librarians across the country have begun to take a
more politically active stance.Read more...